The Chris Kyle tragedy

Make no mistake; there is absolutely nothing redeeming about the Iraq war. It was a war that Americans were lied into by their own leaders. It was a war unjust, immoral, and unnecessary.

None of which prevents me from respecting the US troops who, following orders, found themselves doing what they were ordered to do over there.

By all accounts, Chris Kyle was an exemplary soldier. I respect anyone who achieves the elite ranks of their profession. I know how hard it is to hit a raccoon from fifty yards. I have nothing but respect for the skill set required to take out an Iraqi "insurgent" from 2000 yards.

This is a respect quite removed from political considerations or questions of morality.

And I have a certain empathy for Eddie Ray Routh. He too followed orders to Iraq.

Unlike Chris Kyle, Routh came back a broken man.

It was Iraq that was indirectly responsible for bringing these two men together. Kyle gave generously of his time to help vets who were crippled by PTSD. If these reports are accurate, and they certainly ring true, that's the mission that brought Kyle and Routh together that fateful afternoon at the Texas shooting range.

Why did Routh do it?

"I couldn't trust them and had to kill them before they killed me" he told his sister.

The paranoid reasoning of a mind broken by war.

This tragedy should not be laid at the feet of Eddie Ray Routh.

He is a victim as much as Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield are victims.

All of them are victims of the lying politicians who sent them over there in the first place.